Massive nickel catalysts

ABSTRACT

An improved process for hydrogenating organic compounds is provided in which a catalyst is employed that has a nickel surface area greater than about 70 m2/g and a sodium content less than 0.2 wt. % based on the total weight of catalyst. Significantly improved activity is obtained with the nickelsililca catalyst of this invention particularly in conversion of benzene to cyclohexane and in reducing oxo aldehydes to alcohols. The catalyst is prepared by coprecipitating nickel and silicate ions in the presence of a porous silica support under conditions of dilution that favor high surface areas and low inclusion of sodium in the catalyst.

United States Patent [19] Carter et al.

[ MASSIVE NICKEL CATALYSTS [75] Inventors: James L. Carter, Chatham, N.J.; Wayne G. Custead, Elnora, N.Y.

[73] Assignee: Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Linden, NJ.

[22] Filed: July 10, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 270,165

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 84,163, Oct. 26, 1970, Pat. No. 3,697,445, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 877,001, Nov. 14, 1969, abandoned.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,697,445 10/1972 Carter ..252/452 Primary ExaminerC. Dees Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Joseph J. Dvorak [57] ABSTRACT An improved process for hydrogenating organic compounds is provided in which a catalyst is employed that has a nickel surface area greater than about 70 m /g and a sodium content less than 0.2 wt. based on the total weight of catalyst. Significantly improved activity is obtained with the nickel-sililca catalyst of this invention particularly in conversion of benzene to cyclohexane'and in reducing 0x0 aldehydes to alcohols. The catalyst is prepared by coprecipitating nickel and silicate ions in the presence of a porous silica support under conditions of dilution that favor high surface areas and low inclusion of sodium in the catalyst.

10 Claims, No Drawings MASSIVE NICKEL CATALYSTS CROSS REFERENCES This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 84,163 (US. Pat. No. 3,697,445) filed Oct. 26, 1970, which in turn is a Continuation-in-Part of Application S.N. 877,001, filed Nov. 14, 1969, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to highly active nickel-silica catalysts having stabilized high nickel surface areas. More particularly this invention relates to supported nickel-silica catalysts which contain very low quantities of alkali metals. Such supported nickel-silica catalysts have improved activity in reactions involving hydrogenation of organic substrates when compared to catalysts which have low nickel-surface areas and relatively high concentrations of alkali metals in the active catalyst.

Nickel-silica catalysts supported on porous silica particles such as kieselguhr, infusorial, diatomaceous, or siliceous earth are known in the art and have been used widely for hydrogenation reactions. Typical hydrogenation reactions include the hydrogenation of olefins to saturated hydrocarbons, the hydrogenation of aromatics such as benzene and the conversion of x0 aldehydes and the like to the corresponding alcohols. No completely satisfactory process for such hydrogenation reactions has been developed, however, due to the limited activity level of prior art nickel catalysts and the fact that they deactivated quite rapidly.

Investigations have shown thatthe activity of the catalysts is directly related to the nickel surface area, and catalysts will deactivate more rapidly if the nickel sur face areais lowered. Thus, catalysts with high nickel surface area will have more activity and have more acceptable catalyst life. a

In a recent patent, US. Pat. No. 3,351,566, a nickelsilica catalyst was described which had a nickel surface area considerably higher than those known previously; areas disclosed in this patent range between 45 and 60 square meters per gram. Nickel surface area is expressed as area per unit weight of nickel or per unit weight of the total catalyst (m /g.). All references to nickel surface area are expressed on the basis of area per unit weight of total catalyst.

In copending application Ser. No. 78,601 filed Oct. 6, 1970 a nickel-silica catalyst having nickel'surface area greater than 70 m /g. is described. Although such high nickel surface area catalysts represent a substantial step forward in the catalyst art commercially viable hydrogenation processes nonetheless require catalysts with ever greater activity and prolonged catalyst life.

SUMMARY OF THE INSTANT INVENTION According to the instant invention, it has unexpectedly been found that when utilizing carefully controlled, critical conditions to form the catalyst, a nickel-catalyst supported on porous solid particles may be found which has a nickel surface area greater than about 70 m /g., and preferably 75 to 100 m /g. and catalytic activity for hydrogenation several times greater than the previously known nickel catalysts.

In general, in the present invention, the hydrogenation of organic compounds is vastly improved by carrying out the hydrogenation in the presence of a nickelsilica catalyst having a nickel surface area greater than m /g. of active catalyst and an alkali metal content less than 0.2 wt. percent.

In a preferred embodiment of this invention a process for hydrogenating organic compounds having multiple chemical bonds is provided by effecting the hydrogenation of the substrate in the presence of a nickel silicacatalyst havinga nickel surface area of about to about 100 m /g., a total surface area of about 225 to about 300 m /g. and sodium content of about 0.1 wt. 71 or lower, based on the total weight of active catalyst.

The production of the catalyst of the instant invention requires the use of separate solutions, which are preferably aqueous in nature. In a first solution, there is dissolved a source of silicate anion; in a second solution a source of nickel cation. Slurried within the solution containing the silicate. anion is a porous support. preferably a porous silica support such as kieselguhr. Thetwo solutions are commingled preferably by addition of the nickel-containing solution to the silicate solution over a period of approximately 5 to 40 min. By commingling the two previously prepared solutions the amount of dissolved nickel in the reaction mixture is kept exceedingly low and in general well below 0.60 moles/liter of aqueous mixture. This dilution of the dissolved nickel ions is essential in obtaining high nickel surface area catalysts. Also the addition should be made at a substantially constant rate accompanied by vigorous mixing to increase uniformity in the catalyst formation. The mixture is then heated to its boiling point and a precipitating agent is added to precipitate dissolved silicate and nickel ions onto the porous support. A preferred precipitating agent is NH HCO Alkali metal bicarbonate, hydroxides and oxides generally are not desirable precipitants for the process because of the likelihood that some of the alkali metal will ultimately be incorporated in the final catalyst.

During the preparation water is added to maintain a nearly constant volume so that water lost by evaporation is continually replaced. The aqueous mixture is kept at its boiling point for an extended period of l to 5 hours; it is then filtered and the resulting product is washed repeatedly with boiling water. Next the catalyst is dried, calcined in an oxygen source and activated. The activation procedure consists of contacting the catalyst with agaseous reductant, usually flowing hydrogen.

As stated previously the nickel-containing solution and the silicate-containing solution are commingled under conditions of dilution such that the amount of dissolved nickel ions in the resultant aqueous mixture is maintained exceedingly low thereby providing for a high nickel surface area catalyst. Additionally, however, it is essential in preparing the catalyst of this invention, that the precipitation of the catalyst be made from dilute solutions, i.e. the nickel-containing solution must have a nickel concentration no greater than 1.0 moles/liter and an alkali metal silicate concentration no greater than 0.40 moles/liter. The most preferred solutions used in preparing the'catalyst have no more than 0.75 moles/liter of nickel and 0.26 moles/liter of so dium metasilicate. This is contrasted with a more concentrated precipitation in which the solution contains up to twice as much solute.

About 30 to wt. percent of the total silica content of the activated catalyst derives from precipitated silicate ions. Preferably, however 50 to 70 wt. percent of the total silica content is derived from silicate ions.

Typically then the mole ratio of nickel to silicate employed ranges from about 0.75:1 to about 1.75:1.

The remaining steps in preparing and activating the catalyst are identical to those described above. The use of this dilute solution serves to produce a catalyst with substantially the same nickel surface area but considerably more catalyst activity. In fact, activity is increased by a factor of about two for the hydrogenation of benzene, for example.

Although not intending to be bound by any particular theory, it is hypothesized that the use of the additional solvent, i.e. water serves to reduce the alkali metal ion concentration in the solution, therefore less alkali metal, e.g. sodium, can be trapped inside the crystallites that are precipitated. In any event, experiments have demonstrated that repeated washings of nickelsilica catalysts will not reduce the alkali metal content of the catalyst and thereby increase catalyst activity. Only when dilute solutions are employed in the manner described herein, can highly active, low sodium containing catalysts be obtained.

ln more detail, the instant invention pertains to the production of an improved catalyst for hydrogenation. The catalyst may be used to hydrogenate aromatics as typified by the hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane, the hydrogenation of aldehydes both saturated and unsaturated to the alcohols as in the well known oxo process, the hydrogenation of the double bonds in edible fats and oils, as well as other olefin both straight and branched chain, and the hydrogenation of nitro compounds to amines. Indeed, olefins as used herein signify unsaturated compounds having at least one multiple bond and contemplate poly-unsaturated compounds as well.

To form the catalyst, nickel and silicate ions must be coprecipitated onto a porous solid particulate support, preferably a porous silica particulate support. Initially, two distinct solutions are prepared; in one of these solutions is a silicate ion source such as alkali silicates, i.e., sodium and potassium silicates, sodium meta silicate, etc. silicic acid or hydrolyzed silicone hydride.

The amount of silicate anion within this solution will vary from about 1 to 30 grams per liter, preferably 10 to 20 grams per liter. The solution may be maintained at ambient pressure and temperature.

A second solution, containing a source of nickel cation is also prepared; the source of nickel cation may be any of the following: nickel nitrate, nickel chloride and nickel bromide. The concentration of the nickel containing solution will vary from 5 to 60 grams of nickel per liter, preferably 30 to 45 grams per liter.

Other sources of nickel cation and silicate anion may be utilized and will be obvious to one skilled in the art.

Porous solid particles, preferably silica particles, will be slurried in the silicate anion solution. In particular,

kieselguhr, infusorial, diatomateous, siliceous earth,

silica or alumina would be the source of the porous particles. The concentration of theporous solid particles can be expressed as percent of the total silica in the catalyst and should be from to 70 percent, preferably from 30 to 50 percent by weight.

The two solutions are commingled at a slow rate to effect maximum mixing. Typically the nickel nitrate solution would be added to a sodium meta silicate solution uniformly over approximately a 5 to 40 minute period, preferably 10 to 30 minute period. Following the commingling of the two solutions, coprecipitation of nickel and silicate ions must be completed. This may be effected by various methods known in the art, but it is most preferred that the coprecipitation of nickel and silicate ions in aqueous solution containing the solid carrier particles be completed by addition of a water soluble alkaline precipitating compound such as ammonium bicarbonate. The solution should then be heated to about its boiling point. The alkaline ammonium precipitants are most suitable for minimizing the amount of alkali metal residua which has to be removed by washing to avoid poisoning action on the finished catalyst. in some instances, the potassium precipitants may be used where the potassium acts as a promoter rather than as a poison.

The salts of the metal are preferably the watersoluble compounds, e.g. nitrates, formates or oxalates.

The preferred catalytic metal is nickel but other catalytic metals may beused; these metals include cobalt and iron.

Following the precipitation, the mixture is maintained at the boiling point for above 1 to 5 hours then it is filtered and washed 4 times with boiling water. Precipitated catalyst is then dried by heating for about 1 to 5 hours at a temperature of 200 to 400F. It is then calcined by heating in the presence of an oxygencontaining gas or air to a temperature in the range of 600 to 900F. for a period of 2 to 8 hours. preferably 3 to 5 hours.

After the calcining is completed, the catalyst must be reduced in order to activate it. Reduction is carried out in the presence of a reducing gas which is preferably hydrogen. Hydrogen is passed over the catalyst at ambient temperature at a rate of 5 l./H r./gm. catalyst to 100 l./Hr./gm. catalyst, preferably 10 l./Hr./gm. to 30 l./Hr./gm and then the temperature is raised to 600 to 900F. at approximately 10F. per minute and maintained at this temperature with the hydrogen flowing for approximately 1-4 hours and preferably above 2 hours. The reduction is preferably carried out after the catalyst has been loaded into a suitable reactor either batch or continuous flow, the nature of the reactor will be obvious to one skilled in the art.

At this point, the catalyst is sensitive to deactivation and may not be stored in the presence of oxygen at ordinary temperatures without being passivated first. The passivation step may consist of purging the reactor at a temperature greater than 300+F. with an inert gas, preferably nitrogen, cooling to ambient temperature and then passing the inert gas over the catalyst while an air bleed is-introduced into the inert gas so as to have approximately l.-2 mol percent of oxygen present. This procedure will passivate the catalyst by putting a surface oxide coating on it.

The resulting catalyst, in the reduced state, has a nickel surface area of to m /g. and a total surface area of to 300 m /g. Also, the catalyst contains about 0.1 wt. percent or less of sodium and from 25 wt. to about 50 wt. of nickel. The catalyst is extremely active for the hydrogenation of olefins (which term includes diolefins and the like), aromatics, aldehydes both saturated and unsaturated, in the oxo process, edible fats and oils, and nitro compound to amines, preferably C to C olefin straight and branched chain, C to C aromatics including condensed non-aromatics and C, to c aldehydes.

A particularly useful hydrogenation is the conversion of benzene to cyclohexane. This invention provides an improved process for reducing benzene to cyclohexane by hydrogenating benzene in the presence of a nickelsilica catalyst having less than 0.2 wt. percent sodium and preferably 0.1 wt. percent or less sodium in the active catalyst.

The conditions for the hydrogenation reactions which have been discussed vary widely and are well known to those skilled in the art; broadly the following conditions may be utilized: temperatures l50l000F.; pressure I atm.-l2,000 psig; feed rate 0.2-I00 V/Hr./V; H treat 2,000l0,000 SCF/B.

The oxo process is the addition of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to alkenes in order to produce alcohols, aldehydes and other oxygenated organic compounds. Typical alkenes which may be utilized in the process are those having 2 to 20 carbon atoms; conditions for oxo would be temperatures of 150 to 350F.; hydrogen to hydrocarbon mol ratio of 0.5 to 10.0 pressure of 100 to I000 psig.

The product of such a carbonylation process generally consists of aldehydes, acetals, unsaturated oxygenated materials and the like which require hydrofinishing in a second or further hydrogenation stage. It is to the treatment of the aldehyde product, in particular, that the present invention applies.

Hydrogenation conditions in this further reaction stage follow those generally employed in the first stage.

SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS EXAMPLE 1 Ni(NO '6H O was added to 2.25 liters of water. 380

grams of Na SiO '9H O was added to 2.25 liters of water. To the second solution was added 50 grams of kieselguhr which was stirred well to maintain it in suspension. The salts were added to the water at ambient temperature and stirred until dissolved. All stirring was done with an electric stirrer at 600 RPM; the addition took place in standard laboratory equipment. The nickel solution was then added to the sodium silicate solution uniformly over a period of approximately minutes. During this time the sodium silicate solution was stirred rigorously; the mixture was then heated to its boiling point. With the mixture at its boiling point, 800 grams of NH HCO was added uniformly over approximately 15 minutes. During this operation water was lost by evaporation; water was added to replace that which was lost. After all of the NI-I HCO was added the mixture was stirred at its boiling point for 3 hours. Water was again replaced as it was lost by evaporation. The mixture was filtered and the solid portion was washed 5 times with boiling water. Each wash consisted of two liters of water. Finally, the solid catalyst was dried at 200F., calcined in air for 4 hours at 750F., and activated by treatment with flowing hydrogen for several hours at about 670F. About 395 grams of catalyst were recovered.

The catalyst which was prepared was found to have 90 m /g. of nickel surface area and contained 0.2 wt. sodium.

EXAMPLE 2 A sample of the catalyst prepared in Example I, was used to convert benzene into cyclohexane in a continuous hydrogenation reactor. The test conditions were:

temperature of 100C; a space velocity of 25 W/H/W,

EXAMPLE 3 About 750 g. of Ni(NO .6H O and 320 g. of Na Si- O .9H O were added together to 50 g. of kieselguhr which has been slurried in 3.5 liter of water. The solution was mixed and then heated to its boiling point and 800 g. of ammonium carbonate were added. After the precipitation was completed, the slurry was boiled an additional 3 hours. The resulting slurried solid was then filtered, washed, dried and calcined as described in Example l. About 270 grams of catalyst were recovered. The resulting catalyst had a nickel surface area of 47 m lg. The area was determined by the same technique as was utilized in Example I.

This example indicates that the use of a single solution, rather than the separate solutions of Example I produces a catalyst with a far lower surface area i.e. 90

vs. 47 m /g.

EXAMPLE 4 In this Example the exact conditions of Example 2 are utilized except that the catalyst produced in Example 3 is used in place of the catalyst produced in Example I. That is to say, the catalyst is prepared as in the technique of Example I where all elements were added directly to one solution rather-than with the separate mixing technique of Example I. The test conditions for V benzene hydrogenation are the same as described in Example 2 and the conversion to cyclohexane is only 18 percent as determined by the gas chromatography method.

This example demonstrates that the catalyst of Example 2 which has a lower surface area is correspondingly less active as a hydrogenation catalyst when compared to the catalyst of Example 1.

EXAMPLE 5 In this Example the catalyst was prepared exactly as in Example l except for the following:

The total amount of water used in the two solutions was twice that which was used in Example I. To be specific, the nickel nitrate was dissolved in 5 liters of water and the sodium metasilicate was dissolved in 5 liters of water. About 395 grams of catalyst were recovered.

The catalyst recovered had a nickel surface area of about m /g. and contained only about 0.1 wt.-percent sodium. Thus, further dilution did not have an effect on the surface area of the active catalyst but by increasing the solvent by a factor of two, the sodium content was reduced by a factor of one-half.

EXAMPLE 6. v In this Example the exact conditions of Example 2 are utilized except that the catalyst of Example is utilized in place of the catalyst produced by the technique of Example 1. The conversion obtained is 62.8 percent; this demonstrates an improvement of a factor of 2 over the catalyst of Example 1 and a factor of 4 over the catalyst in Example 3. Thus, by diluting the solutions further one can obtain greater catalytic activity.

EXAMPLE 7 A sample of the catalyst prepared in Example 5 was pelleted and used to convert 2-ethylhe'xanal to the corresponding alcohol. The test conditions were: temperature of 135C; a space velocity of 3.0 W/W/Hr., a pressure of 500 psig and a hydrogen-to-hydrocarbon mole ratio of 2.5. After hours 96.0 percent of the aldehyde was converted to the alcohol whereas in a test conducted under identical conditions but using a commercially available nickel catalyst only 70.1 percent of the aldehyde had been reduced.

This demonstrates a marked improvement in the conversion of oxo aldehydes to alcohols by virtue of the greater activity of the catalyst of this invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A nickel-silica catalyst having a nickel surface area greater than about 70 m /g. of catalyst and a sodium content of less than 0.2 wt. percent.

2. The catalyst of claim 1 wherein said catalyst has a total surface area greater than about 225 m /g.

3. The catalyst of claim 1 including a porous silica support, and wherein said catalyst has a nickel surface area of 75 m /g. to 100 m /g., a nickel content of about 25 wt. percent to about 50 wt. percent based on the total weight of catalyst, and a sodium content of about 0.1 wt. percent.

4. The catalyst of claim 3 wherein the silica support is selected from the group consisting of kieselguhr and diatomaceous earth and said support constitutes from about 10 wt. percent to about 70 wt. percent of the total silica in the catalyst.

5. The catalyst of claim 3 wherein said silica support is kieselguhr and said kieselguhr constitutes from wt. percent to 50 wt. percent of the total silica in the catalyst.

6. A process for preparing a nickel-silica catalyst which comprises:

a. preparing an aqueous solution containing below about 30 g/l of silicate anion;

b. slurrying porous silica particles in a solution prepared in step (a);

c. preparing an aqueous solution containing less than 60 g/l of nickel ions;

d. adding the solution prepared in step (c) to the slurry prepared in step (b) at a substantially uniform rate; and

e. calcining the recovered solids.

7. The process of claim 6 wherein said solution of step (a) contains about 10 to about 20 g/l of silicate anions derived from sodium metasilicate and said solution of step (c) contains about 30 to about 45 g/l of nickel ions derived from nickel nitrate.

8. The process of claim 6 including the steps of heating the resultant mixtures from step (d) to its boiling point and thereafter adding ammonium bicarbonate to the heated mixture.

9. The process of claim 8 including the step of maintaining the volume of solution constant during heating.

10. The process of claim 6 wherein the calcined solids are activated by contacting them with hydrogen at a temperature in the range of about 600F. to about 900F.

Q On page 1 of the patent under Related U.S. Application 9 and substitute therefor -and now abandoned-- Signed and Scaled this UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,8623 332 Dated Feb 25, 1975 lnventofls) James L. Carter, Wayne G. Custead It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Data":

Before "October 26, 1970" insert --filed-- After October 26, 1970" cancel Pat. No. 3,697,445

Before November 14, 1969 insert --filed-- After November 14, 1969" insert --alsonineteenth D y f Aug/1511975 [SEAL] Arrest:

RUTH C. MASON C. MARSHALL DAN'N Arresting Uffi'ze ((mzmissimzcr uj'larcms and Trademarks FORM (10-59? USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 U.5. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1969 0"365-33L 

1. A nickel-silica catalyst having a nickel surface area greater than about 70 m2/g. of catalyst and a sodium content of less than 0.2 wt. percent.
 2. The catalyst of claim 1 wherein said catalyst has a total surface area greater than about 225 m2/g.
 3. The catalyst of claim 1 including a porous silica support, and wherein said catalyst has a nickel surface area of 75 m2/g. to 100 m2/g., a nickel content of about 25 wt. percent to about 50 wt. percent based on the total weight of catalyst, and a sodium content of about 0.1 wt. percent.
 4. The catalyst of claim 3 wherein the silica support is selected from the group consisting of kieselguhr and diatomaceous earth and said support constitutes from about 10 wt. percent to about 70 wt. percent of the total silica in the catalyst.
 5. The catalyst of claim 3 wherein said silica support is kieselguhr and said kieselguhr constitutes from 30 wt. percent to 50 wt. percent of the total silica in the catalyst.
 6. A PROCESS FOR PREPARING A NICKEL-SILICA CATALYST WHICH COMPRISES: A. PREPARING AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION CONTAINING BELOW ABOUT 30 G/L OF SILICATE ANION; B. SLURRY POROUS SILICA PARTICLES IN A SOLUTION PREPARED IN STEP (A); C. PREPARING AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION CONTAINING LESS THAN 60 G/L OF NICKEL IONS; D. ADDING THE SOLUTION PREPARED IN STEP (C) TO THE SLURRY PREPARED IN STEP (B) AT A SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM RATE; AND E. CALCINING THE RECOVERED SOLIDS.
 7. The process of claim 6 wherein said solution of step (a) contains about 10 to about 20 g/l of silicate anions derived from sodium metasilicate and said solution of step (c) contains about 30 to about 45 g/l of nickel ions derived from nickel nitrate.
 8. The process of claim 6 including the steps of heating the resultant mixtures from step (d) to its boiling point and thereafter adding ammonium bicarbonate to the heated mixture.
 9. The process of claim 8 including the step of maintaining the volume of solution constant during heating.
 10. The process of claim 6 wherein the calcined solids are activated by contacting them with hydrogen at a temperature in the range of about 600*F. to about 900*F. 